Stop Digging

Monday

Feb 24, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 25, 2014 at 12:12 AM

Two separate hot topics collided the other day. Ho topic number one being the ongoing discussion of the city's trash disposal. Currently there are six different proposals that will be presented to the city council for discussion. You might have heard about some heated opinions being expressed last week with regard to the first proposal, that would be the pay-as-you-throw deal. The second hot topic that has been out there is the city council's ongoing opinion that the mayor is pretty much doing what he pleases without giving them a whiff of what it is he's up to. You know the drill. Showers, glass doors, contracts, casinos. Now we find out that His Honor has been chatting up Republic Waste Services. And there you have it. In an almost seamless maneuver the mayor has managed to combine both hot topics. Makes it easier to focus I guess. Just throw all your problems into the same hole.

Republic Waste Services is the current owner and operator of the landfill. After years of hearing that the landfill is going to be closing we have reached the point where it is official. The landfill is going to be closing. I think. They are going to construct a transfer station up on Airport Road at the current site and that's that for that. Now, backs to the wall yet again, the city must act. No more procrastination will be permitted. You and I are going to keep producing solid waste to be disposed of. We're going to keep putting it curb side and we're going to leave it there until somebody comes and gets it and takes it someplace else. Where is the big question at this point. Where and how and how much? This is going to cost the city some big money. No more host fees and no more reduced rate tipping fees. We're talking a $5 million whack here. So naturally our elected leaders will be working in unison and setting aside any personal agendas or grievances in order to rectify this problem with the best possible outcome for you, the taxpayer, in mind. That was nice, wasn't it ? That last sentence I mean. Sort of a little Utopian mind drift on my part. I'm back now. So hears the real deal.

We already have a bit of a rift. We're only one proposal in and the news comes that the mayor is talking to Republic about, of all things, expanding the landfill. The mayor announced it on the radio. He told the Herald about it two weeks ago but said it was off the record. Not sure when that changed, I guess when he said it on the air. So the council has heard. Many of them are none too happy. You'd be hard pressed to find anybody who is going to be too upset about the final chapter being written on that place. That Bad Larry has been just that, a Bad Larry, for years. An environmental albatross around the city's neck. It sits, no looms over, the entrance of the Industrial Park. It's situated a mile from our drinking water. You can see the damned thing coming over the Braga Bridge if you're heading east and turn your head to the left. The battleship is hidden under the bridge but the landfill you can see. Mount Trashmore in all it's filthy glory. Hell, we closed the city's only airport to keep it open. But it was always about the dollars. So we just held our collective noses and tried to ignore it's existence as best we could. Literally. It's not a pleasant place. So goodbye and let's move on. Right ? Wrong.

The mayor is trying to broker a deal for Republic for two parcels of land on Airport Road to the south of the current site. It would allow them to have enough land to satisfy requirements necessary to expand. The reason they have to close is they are out of land to dump on and they are at the height maximum. This gives them more land. More land equals more trash in the landfill business. Pretty simple formula. The deal won't be done any time soon and this is not a solution to the current problem. We need someplace to put our trash this year. Not 3 to 5 years from now. The mayor's thinking, I guess, is that whatever solution we come up with now could be temporary, until the landfill could expand, then we could go back to getting host fees and stuff. The problem is that would only be temporary too. Until that land is full, then we'd be back to where we are today. We're here now. How about, this once, we come up with a long range plan and not a temporary one ? Just a thought.

Needless to say some members of the council were shocked to find out that this was going on. They get that way a lot. Many of them have reached a point just north of frustration with the frequency of finding things out after the fact. How about you ? Anybody run this up your flagpole ? You tired of the multiple surprises yet or is it just political par for the course to you by now ? Just askin'. To be honest I didn't even bat an eyelash when I found out. I figure there's more to come too. Which is too bad, but we are at that point in the Riv. With all we've found out in a short time NOT being cynical toward local government would seem imprudent.

It makes a tidy little metaphorical story though. Combining two topics together and throwing them in the same hole. Especially when the hole in question is a landfill. That somehow seems fitting. There's one other thing about holes though that also applies. It's a saying that fits in nicely with things that have been going on in the Rive lately. When you're in a hole, stop digging.

Two separate hot topics collided the other day. Ho topic number one being the ongoing discussion of the city's trash disposal. Currently there are six different proposals that will be presented to the city council for discussion. You might have heard about some heated opinions being expressed last week with regard to the first proposal, that would be the pay-as-you-throw deal. The second hot topic that has been out there is the city council's ongoing opinion that the mayor is pretty much doing what he pleases without giving them a whiff of what it is he's up to. You know the drill. Showers, glass doors, contracts, casinos. Now we find out that His Honor has been chatting up Republic Waste Services. And there you have it. In an almost seamless maneuver the mayor has managed to combine both hot topics. Makes it easier to focus I guess. Just throw all your problems into the same hole.
Republic Waste Services is the current owner and operator of the landfill. After years of hearing that the landfill is going to be closing we have reached the point where it is official. The landfill is going to be closing. I think. They are going to construct a transfer station up on Airport Road at the current site and that's that for that. Now, backs to the wall yet again, the city must act. No more procrastination will be permitted. You and I are going to keep producing solid waste to be disposed of. We're going to keep putting it curb side and we're going to leave it there until somebody comes and gets it and takes it someplace else. Where is the big question at this point. Where and how and how much? This is going to cost the city some big money. No more host fees and no more reduced rate tipping fees. We're talking a $5 million whack here. So naturally our elected leaders will be working in unison and setting aside any personal agendas or grievances in order to rectify this problem with the best possible outcome for you, the taxpayer, in mind. That was nice, wasn't it ? That last sentence I mean. Sort of a little Utopian mind drift on my part. I'm back now. So hears the real deal.
We already have a bit of a rift. We're only one proposal in and the news comes that the mayor is talking to Republic about, of all things, expanding the landfill. The mayor announced it on the radio. He told the Herald about it two weeks ago but said it was off the record. Not sure when that changed, I guess when he said it on the air. So the council has heard. Many of them are none too happy. You'd be hard pressed to find anybody who is going to be too upset about the final chapter being written on that place. That Bad Larry has been just that, a Bad Larry, for years. An environmental albatross around the city's neck. It sits, no looms over, the entrance of the Industrial Park. It's situated a mile from our drinking water. You can see the damned thing coming over the Braga Bridge if you're heading east and turn your head to the left. The battleship is hidden under the bridge but the landfill you can see. Mount Trashmore in all it's filthy glory. Hell, we closed the city's only airport to keep it open. But it was always about the dollars. So we just held our collective noses and tried to ignore it's existence as best we could. Literally. It's not a pleasant place. So goodbye and let's move on. Right ? Wrong.
The mayor is trying to broker a deal for Republic for two parcels of land on Airport Road to the south of the current site. It would allow them to have enough land to satisfy requirements necessary to expand. The reason they have to close is they are out of land to dump on and they are at the height maximum. This gives them more land. More land equals more trash in the landfill business. Pretty simple formula. The deal won't be done any time soon and this is not a solution to the current problem. We need someplace to put our trash this year. Not 3 to 5 years from now. The mayor's thinking, I guess, is that whatever solution we come up with now could be temporary, until the landfill could expand, then we could go back to getting host fees and stuff. The problem is that would only be temporary too. Until that land is full, then we'd be back to where we are today. We're here now. How about, this once, we come up with a long range plan and not a temporary one ? Just a thought.
Needless to say some members of the council were shocked to find out that this was going on. They get that way a lot. Many of them have reached a point just north of frustration with the frequency of finding things out after the fact. How about you ? Anybody run this up your flagpole ? You tired of the multiple surprises yet or is it just political par for the course to you by now ? Just askin'. To be honest I didn't even bat an eyelash when I found out. I figure there's more to come too. Which is too bad, but we are at that point in the Riv. With all we've found out in a short time NOT being cynical toward local government would seem imprudent.
It makes a tidy little metaphorical story though. Combining two topics together and throwing them in the same hole. Especially when the hole in question is a landfill. That somehow seems fitting. There's one other thing about holes though that also applies. It's a saying that fits in nicely with things that have been going on in the Rive lately. When you're in a hole, stop digging.